Focusing on prevention and public information works against COVID-19. It can work against violent conflicts.
Nigerian leaders struggling to reduce violence in the country’s myriad conflicts should take some lessons—from their own response to the coronavirus. While Nigeria’s COVID-19 ordeal is still unfolding, its eventual casualties unknown, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and several governors have modeled the ways to reduce catastrophic outbreaks. The simple existence of a national prevention center with sustained resources has proven critical. Key officials have applied vital principles, acting at the first sign of danger and keeping the public widely informed. These are precisely the ways to confront Nigeria’s other national plague—of violence.
A Nigerian soldier overlooks a canal where members of the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram are allegedly operating, in the city of Maiduguri, in north-eastern Nigeria, July 18, 2011. An Islamist insurgency that has haunted northern Nigeria appears to be branching out and collaborating with al-Qaida’s affiliates, alarming Western officials and analysts who had previously viewed the militants here as a largely isolated, if deadly, menace. (Samuel James/The New York Times)
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